• The China Checklist

      International businesses succeed in foreign markets when they understand local challenges and values. Sunrise's clients work with our Beijing-based team of 75 China experts to help navigate China’s dynamic business landscape. As your organization looks to capitalize on China's growing market, use the following checklist to set up your business for success.

      Localization

      The key to the Chinese market​

      Host your website in China to avoid the Great Firewall.

       

      Design Chinese-language marketing materials in mobile-friendly formats.

       

      Boost visibility on highly-trusted networks in China like Baidu and Zhihu.

      Social Media

      Reach more Chinese consumers

      Establish official accounts on major Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo.

       

      Launch marketing campaigns across different platforms to maximize your reach.

       

      Engage with local Key Opinion Leaders.

      "Guanxi" Development

      Relationships matter

      Host events and activities to build personal connections and reinforce confidence.

       

      Build a well-designed feedback system that demonstrates attention to customers.

       

      Initiate interactive campaigns and give gifts to customers to grow brand loyalty.

    • Speaking Chinese is Not Enough

       

      The more pressing challenge is to overcome cultural differences. Consider these two questions:

      1. Will your audience understand what your products are?
      2. Will your audience trust you and your products?

      To answer "yes" to both questions, reliable translations of your materials into Chinese is just the first step. It is also important to appeal to local attitudes, needs, and preferences.

      Navigate the Great Firewall

       

      Digital marketing in China operates in a parallel universe. Your Facebook campaign, YouTube videos, Twitter KOL reports, Google Analytics, and other essential tools used by your local marketing team are useless when targeting Chinese audiences. Most major foreign social media sites are blocked by the Great Firewall.


      China has local versions of many foreign services. For example, Chinese consumers use the search engine Baidu. To reach the Chinese market, local services must be utilized.

    • Insight

      Click on the icon to read full article

      Over the past few years, thousands of websites have been blocked in China, including almost all of Google, foreign social media, and numerous news and media outlets, because of internet censorship in China. At the same time, access to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), digital gateways through Chinese censorship, has dramatically fallen - stricter enforcement against their use and new measures after two illegal Chinese VPN suppliers were put into jail…

      WeChat may very well be the most important app in China, using it in a professional environment necessitates the organization of WeChat contacts. Organizing your WeChat contacts is important because it helps you find contacts quickly without the headache of searching through your entire list and helps you send out messages and push documents to targeted groups of people…

      Weibo is China’s microblogging site, similar to Twitter. As of 2017, it has more users than Twittermaking it one of the most prominent social media platforms in the world. It is also China’s most distinguished and efficient mass-marketing tool and its usership is approaching 500 million.

      Weibo is not a direct carbon copy of Twitter—Weibo has different features adapted to the Chinese context…

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